Following in your famous family’s footsteps, in the profession that made them household names, has its downsides. But so, too, does attempting to go a different route, to chart your own course that strays from the path to stardom previously taken.

Edinburgh’s beauty has been extolled by notables from Felix Mendelssohn to Prince Charles to The Black Eyed Peas. Their praise is not exaggerated. But for me, the most sublime moment during our visit came not during a viewing of the skyline, but in a bright and elegant breakfast room where our genial host set a plate of homemade pancakes in front of our delighted eight-year-old daughter.

Twenty-two months ago, Shane Bunting, the man known to the hip-hop world as Madchild, was on the edge of the abyss. He had spent four years abusing alcohol and painkillers like Oxycodone, better known as OxyContin — Oxy for short.

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